Voitures Anciennes

[RobertArthur]

No shortage of colours.

[RobertArthur]

And again the famous VW T1, now the late fifties 'Carlux' version. How to discover the most beautiful parts of Switzerland in a panorama coach. And many years later, in 2008, it is again time for a discovery. It has been an almost ancient Greek Epos, this restoration project. Just as Odysseus eventually returned to Ithaca after many wanderings and misfortunes, occasionally comforted by beautiful ladies, a group of seven friends managed to turn this wreck they found at a scrapyard in Switzerland into something beautiful. What you need are restoration skills, cunning, perseverance and perhaps the support of the goddess Athena. And above all, follow your dreams. Just persevere and one day you will reach your ultimate goal.


And yes, a VW restoration story from Germany.

[curtis]

Fantastic. I have never seen one of those before.

[RobertArthur]

Mass production of these special coaches? No, not at all.

Act One: St. Gallen (Switzerland), around 1959. Sprenger, a company that organises coach trips, is looking for panoramic coaches that are narrow enough for winding mountain roads – or so the story goes. How many Carlux coaches were there? Ernst Auwärter mentioned 24.

Act Two: one day, a sheet of drawings with measurements for just such a VW T1 arrives at Ernst Auwärter Karosserie- und Fahrzeugbau KG in Stuttgart-Möhringen (Germany)– it says ‘VW Luxus-Car’ and bears the names of Auwärter and Sprenger.

I seem to remember seeing one during a day trip by coach, not this one, with my parents in the Bernese Oberland in the early 1960s, which included the famous Grimsel Pass. With up to nine people on board, those little, underpowered Carlux coaches rolled through the Swiss countryside with 34 horsepower. And the steep mountain passes? I imagine second and first gear will have been working hard. More than enough time to look around and up and take some photos. But not too many, very expensive (Kodak, Ilford, Agfa).

In short, you can count yourself lucky if you've ever seen one in real life.

How many survivors today? Only three.....

[RobertArthur]

A few photos from a tourist brochure that I had kept all these years, which, to my surprise, I found again after only five minutes. That trip over steep mountain passes must have made quite an impression on me as a young boy.

Classic Swiss tourist coaches, made by Saurer, in their natural environment. Saurer, a car and engine brand almost lost to history

[RobertArthur]

Counterfeit classic cars, easy money? A report in the German press: " The year 2023 began with two cases of counterfeit Mercedes 300 SL Roadsters (W 198 II), which sent shockwaves through the classic car scene. Both cases involved cars worth millions, each with two vehicles bearing the same chassis number. And in both cases, the company Kienle Automobiltechnik in Heimerdingen, Swabia, was apparently involved, where there was even a raid.

In the meantime, another counterfeit 300 SL Roadster has turned up, also bearing a false chassis number (VIN or vehicle identification number). The auction house RM Sotheby's wanted to auction the car at Motorworld Munich for millions.
The Kienle company has long since been liquidated. Mercedes-Benz Heritage, Daimler's classic car division, has since taken over parts of the company, its extensive spare parts inventory and some of its workforce. Klaus Kienle himself, founder and long-time head of the company, has died unexpectedly.

The Stuttgart public prosecutor's office is continuing its investigation into his company and his sons. And the question of how duplicate chassis numbers can occur in the first place remains unanswered. The methods used by classic car forgers remain unclear, so let's take a closer look."

Geneva, 300 SL Roadster, 1961.

Also available in yellow. ("Phantasiegelb")

This one in red has the original VIN number, the owner didn't like the colour. The official files still mentioned "yellow". What appeared to be a good starting point for reusing the VIN number due to the reliable source turned out not to be the case after additional research.

I see a yellow Merc and I want to paint it red.

[RobertArthur]

Let's be honest, it's the farmer who feeds us all, not Facebook, TikTok, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, Google search or the answers that AI serves up to us. The last time I saw a farmer with a horse and plow working in a field was from the high walls around Vezelay. That attracted viewers, so could that man have been hired by the local tourist office? Who knows, maybe he was a resident of Vezelay with equine facilities. It's a little easier to see annual harvest festivals where you have to plow as straight as possible with an old tractor. Pictured below an old Allis-Chalmers tractor. Without GPS...

The summer of 2019, the Comice Agricole in Brinon-sur-Beuvron, la France entière arrive including several paintings of the OH, everything still looked so peaceful, just as it had always been, summertime forever....We knew nothing yet about Covid or the invasion of Ukraine.

[RobertArthur]

And across the Rhine river again. Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz? My friends all drive Porsches.

But what about an Auto Union 1000 Sp Roadster, 1961–1965? Why does the Ford Thunderbird rattle like that? Oh, wait, it's not a T-Bird at all! It's an Auto Union 1000 Sp. It looks almost exactly the same. But instead of a V8 and 248 hp, this would-be American car chugs along with a tinny, two-stroke sound from its three cylinders. The power of the three ignition coils manages to get 55 hp from the one-litre engine. You could buy a Porsche 356 at the time, the cheapest version only had five more horsepower. Sunday afternoon: shall we go for a drive in the countryside?

[Hotrodder]

That Sp Roadster certainly follows the design ideas of the 1956-57 Ford T-bird. My grandfather had a 1962 like the year in your other link. Not in red and not a convertible but as I recall had very powerful assisted brakes, power steering that meant you could park with a single finger pressure, air conditioning that could literally form frost on the output grill below the dash.

[RobertArthur]

Britain's Mercedes, the Rover P4 110 ?

When I saw an old Rover P4 parked along Route 66, rusted, lonely and abandoned, now nothing more than a tourist attraction, I almost felt sorry for what must once have been a beautiful, new car. The car that its first owner proudly drove home from the dealership, where it would be the object of admiration for his wife, children and neighbours. In the 110 several elements of the P5 saloon.

Fortunately, there is another one, in almost new condition, ready for a test drive.